Barnesville Robotics Team Heading to the World Championship
The Barnesville Middle School Robotics Team will take its new and improved robot to the world championship, where it will compete against teams from across the globe.
The VEX V5 Robotics Competition is a nationwide program in which students design, build, program and operate robots to compete in a new game announced each year.
This year’s VEX Worlds Competition will take place April 25–27 at the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis, Missouri.
The team qualified for the event at the VEX Robotics Ohio State Championship Tournament in March at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton. Barnesville Robotics Middle School Team B also participated at the state competition. According to Brianna Holskey, Barnesville robotics coach and middle school PLTW teacher, they performed well.
Team A includes five seventh-and eighth-grade students: Blaine Thompson, Grant Feldner, Alivia Miller, Ridge Burghy and Avery Turner.Holskey added that teams can qualify for the world championship in several ways. Barnesville’s Team A advanced based on its skills score, which combines points earned in robot performance, autonomous coding and driver control. The team placed 10th in the state.
The group has competed in multiple events throughout the school year leading up to the state and now world contests.
At the world competition, teams are also eligible for judged awards, including excellence, design and innovation honors.
Throughout the season, the team maintained an engineering notebook documenting its design process. Holskey said the students rebuilt their robot three to four times.
“After they go to their first competition and see how it is compared to the other robots, see different design ideas, it’s constantly changing,” Holskey said.
Holskey described her role as more of a guide, with students leading the ideas, design and construction.
She said the team regularly watches match footage, compares designs and evaluates what improvements can be made. Each time the robot is modified, students must also adjust the coding and document those changes.
After the state competition, Team A decided to start over.
Middle schooler Blaine Thompson works on Barnesville Robotics Team A’s robot. ©Barnesville Area News Company Photo.
“They knew that they could do even better,” she said. “It’s been around five weeks, and they have almost completely finished an entirely new robot that is going to work with the game.”
After studying other teams’ designs throughout the season, the students combined the most effective features into one robot. The result is a machine built to carry more game pieces while still scoring efficiently and using a mechanism that guides items smoothly into the goal.
The earlier version featured a simpler, front-to-back structure set at a 45-degree angle with a flexible front, allowing for quick movement and rapid scoring.
The new robot, however, is wider and more robust. It is bulkier, making it harder for opponents to push it off course while allowing it to hold its ground or push back during matches.
The team’s new robot sits on the field. ©Barnesville Area News Company Photo.
“We definitely say we’ve had our ups and downs,” Feldner said. “We’ve really improved from our beginning robots to the one we’re at now.”
Miller, who is in her first year on the team, said she is proud to have made it this far.
Thompson said this season has been more challenging because the game has changed frequently, forcing the team to constantly adapt. Unlike last year, when the game remained consistent, this year’s competition is more complex and requires teams to move pieces into goals rather than simply carrying them.
“It’s really inspiring to see younger kids take that much initiative,” Holskey said. “As a coach, seeing the drive in them wanting to do better, because they didn’t have to just completely start over on the robot, it’s definitely a really proud moment to see the determination that they have.”
The Barnesville Robotics High School and Middle School teams come together as a group with their teacher and coach Brianna Holskey. ©Barnesville Area News Company Photo. Left to right: High schooler Colby Strawn, Alivia Miller (Team A), Lexi Lawless, Brystel Nalley, Blaine Thompson (Team A), Lincoln Gallagher, Jenner Liberati, Luke Mazgaj, high schooler Gavin Zumock and Grant Feldner (Team A). Not pictured on the high school team are Luke Fuchs, Mason Wells and Owen Miller. Kneeling is Brianna Holskey.
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